Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
The conservation movement in Africa during the 1960s has worked along many front lines. Failures and successes have been registered. As a whole one may say that there has been tremendous progress for conservation in Africa when the situation in 1974 is compared with what it was in 1960, but nevertheless at present there are still more productive waters and land areas that are being destroyed than are being saved or restored. The conservation fight has to go on, and it is a battle against time and human misconceptions. Particularly are there some countries in which the values of menaced Nature have been considered to be of such exceptional importance that special efforts have been undertaken within the meagre means available to the international organizations most concerned.
The present paper constitutes a review of significant environmental conservation measures, proposals, and failures, in various regions and countries of equatorial Africa. It is hoped to follow with a similar treatment of northern and southern Africa. Emphasis will be laid on national parks and nature reserves, because at present it is particularly in this field that African states show their conservation consciousness. It is to be hoped that the time will soon come when the necessity for conservation, management, and wise utilization, of renewable natural resources, will be fully realized also outside the national parks and equivalent reserves.